This revival of Patrick Marber's 1990s comedy drama about a group of men and their compulsive gambling and troubled relationships is so dominated by one performance that the ensemble work gets slightly lost. The final act is a poker game, which is difficult to dramatise effectively, and the emotional impact is dissipated throughout by an almost sitcom tone.
The performance that threatens to overshadow the entire piece is Hammed Animashaun as Mugsy, the eternally optimistic and naïve bartender who dreams of opening an "Italian/French" restaurant in a converted public toilet in Mile End. None of the others take him seriously. It is a performance of great energy, comedy and charisma.
The rest of the cast (a quietly menacing Brendan Coyle as Ash, a mysterious professional gambler; a haughty Daniel Lapaine as restaurant owner Stephen; his son Carl (Kasper Hilton-Hille); Alfie Allen as Frankie and Theo Barklem-Biggs as Sweeney) are highly competent. But there is an over-reliance on sudden outbursts of shouting that feel unearned.
There is plenty of potential for both pathos and Pinter-style menace (the former in the father-son relationship and the absent father narrative of Sweeney; the latter in the arrival of the enigmatic Ash), but the characters lack depth and the poker game of the final act feels turgid. The staging feels compressed, with insufficient separation between the kitchen space and the public space of the restaurant.
A special mention must go to the loud bursts of Massive Attack that ground the production in the 1990s. Unfortunately, the humour also feels dated and the potential to explore serious themes lost amid the punning and bonhomie.